Professor Crow’s analysis centered on the origins and causes of schizophrenia, hypothesising that the sickness was related to people’ distinctive capability for language and arose comparatively just lately in human evolution. He additionally sought to categorise the signs of the illness, later introducing the idea of two distinct syndromes of schizophrenia.
He joined the Division of Psychiatry at Oxford in 1995, turning into Professor of Psychiatry three years later. He was the inaugural Honorary Director of the Prince of Wales Worldwide Centre for SANE Analysis which opened in 2003 on the Warneford Hospital website in Oxford.
Professor Clare Mackay, who got here to Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher working in Professor Crow’s staff, mentioned:
I want to pay tribute to Tim’s generosity as a supervisor. He taught me loads about psychosis, and way more about dedication and braveness in a scientific profession.”
Professor Crow was born in London in 1938. He studied on the Royal London Hospital Faculty of Medication earlier than taking his PhD on the College of Aberdeen.
After a 12 months lecturing on the College of Manchester, Professor Crow grew to become head of the division of psychiatry at Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex, in 1974.
In 1981 he was awarded the Lieber Prize for schizophrenia analysis and a decade later was a joint winner of the World Federation of Societies of Organic Psychiatry’s analysis prize. He was made OBE in 2018.
Professor Belinda Lennox, Head of the Division of Psychiatry at Oxford, mentioned:
Timothy Crow was a vastly essential determine not solely within the Division of Psychiatry right here at Oxford, the place he labored for a lot of years, however within the discipline of psychiatry typically.
His pioneering work on schizophrenia, devoted to figuring out causes of the sickness was extremely influential and has elevated public consciousness of the sickness. Our ideas are along with his household and associates.”
Marjorie Wallace CBE, founder and chief govt of SANE, mentioned: “I labored carefully with Professor Tim Crow, and certainly as a pioneer of schizophrenia analysis he was one of many key figures who impressed me to discovered the charity. He subsequently grew to become the scientific director at our analysis centre in Oxford and for over twenty years we funded a few of his analysis.
“On the slopes of Davos or different ski resorts the place he held his biennial winter workshops on schizophrenia, he might be an enthralling companion (neither of us may truly ski!). I additionally witnessed and wrote a few facet to him his colleagues and opponents might not have seen – the perception and compassion that he gave to sufferers and their households.
“As one of many comparatively few neuroscientists with new and imaginative concepts in regards to the often-neglected problem of psychotic sickness, he’ll stay an essential determine within the historical past of psychiatry.”
Professor Crow died on November 10 2024, leaving his spouse Julie, son Oliver and daughter Louise, and his siblings Simon and Joanna.
